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Research Methodology Assignment

How ICT is important to Legal Research

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14 views5 pages

Research Methodology Assignment

How ICT is important to Legal Research

Uploaded by

wwwodumsaisha038
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INTRODUCTION

One of the most tedious and time-consuming sides to legal education and practice

is legal research, however, technology is playing a great role in the evolvement of

legal research from online databases which make information easily accessible to

artificial intelligence tools helping to simplify legal research tasks and legal

research solutions helping to reduce chunks of work, making it easier for students

and legal professionals to focus more on practical tasks. Even law schools are

adopting these changes to help students learn more efficiently and facilitate their

transition from the academic to the professional legal world.

WHAT IS ICT?

ICT stands for “Information and Communication Technology.” It refers to the

diverse set of technologies and tools that are used to manage, process, transmit,

and exchange information. ICT encompasses both hardware and software

components, as well as the networks and systems that enable communication and

data manipulation. It plays a crucial role in modern society, impacting various

aspects of daily life, business, education, research, and more.1

1
Jyotika ‘Application of ICT in Research’ (2024) ,<adda247.com> (accessed on 19th August 2024)

1
THE RELEVANCE OF ICT IN MODERN DAY LEGAL RESEARCH

The relevance of ICT adoption in legal research cannot be overemphasized; it is

utilized to ensure efficient and excellent result, not only in legal research and

practice but in overall areas of Education and development.

Olubiyi, Olaniyan and Odiaka in their conference paper ‘’the role of technology in

the advancement of legal education and practice in Nigeria’’ noted that:

“technology has revolutionized the way law is practiced and thus, by

necessity, the way it is thought and learned. Increasingly, legal

educators have determined that proficiency in information and

communication technologies is one of the essential lawyering skills

required to prepare students for law practice”2

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has significantly transformed

modern legal research. With the advent of the internet, legal professionals can

access vast amounts of legal information, cases, and statutes online. Online

databases and legal research platforms make it easier to search for and retrieve

legal documents quickly. Without a doubt, ICT has made legal research more

efficient, accurate, and accessible in today's digital age. It is pertinent to state that

the internet contains the most recent legal materials because of the speed in which

the information is disseminated.3


2
Ayobami Olaniyan ‘The Role of Technology in the Advancement of Legal Education and Practice in Nigeria’ (2015)
<researchgate.net> (accessed on 20th August 2024)
3
Ibid

2
ICT has made it easier to collaborate, share information, and conduct research

remotely, enhancing the overall effectiveness of legal research methods. ICT has

also revolutionized legal research methods by providing access to a wealth of legal

information at our fingertips. Online databases and online libraries enable legal

researchers to find relevant cases, statutes, and scholarly articles quickly. Some of

these include:

1. Law Pavillion (Primsol)

2. Judy.legal

3. Nigerian lawyers dictionary

4. LexisNexis

5. Westlaw

6. HeinOnline

7. Library of congress research guides; to mention a few.

For instance, lawpavillion which is an electronic law report and research software

for use by lawyers and students; helps legal practitioners and students search for

any subject and get result within seconds, rather than manual research which takes

a day(s). It prides itself as reporting Nigerian cases online and it has invariably

made itself indispensable to the modern digital legal practitioner and indeed, to

students.4

4
A.O Alubo, SAN ‘Contemporary Legal Research methodology’ (Revised Ed, 200-)

3
ICT plays an integral role in the research area by Identifying research topics on

available online platforms and reviewing the available literature, it helps in

choosing the right method of Research, Effective data collection, summarizing and

also helps in accessing multiple databases for needed data sets as per requirement. 5

The use of the above listed software and website is a testament that the use of ICT

is relevant in legal research if at all we want to save time and most especially meet

deadlines.

CONCLUSION

In fact, in this era, ICT is relevant in every aspect; especially in education where no

matter where one is, they can access classrooms through virtual means as we

experienced during the Covid-19 lockdown where many institutions resorted to the

use of zoom, google classrooms and other virtual teaching and learning software.

Of course, there are challenges in the use of ICT in legal research, as some of the

sites cannot be accessed without subscription or internet data which sometimes

cost a lot of money; also, another challenge in Nigeria is the epileptic delivery of

power supply (especially with our national grid frequently collapsing), and

researchers may oftentimes be interrupted during research due to this. However, I

am convinced that the benefits of ICT in research outweigh its challenges.

Furthermore, with the current students of law and lawyers in the profession being

comfortable and at home with technology which they prefer to use in their
5
ibid

4
everyday dealings, I am sure the future of research will be mostly ICT based if not

totally ICT based. It is of importance, therefore, for teachers and students to

embrace ICT and maximize the use of technology in schools and curriculums in

order to create a less time consuming, efficient and balanced learning

environment.6

6
ibid

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